The “5” Royales – It’s Hard But It’s Fair: The King Hits and Rarities (Ace)
This week, my favorite reissues of 2005 not already mentioned in part 2 of my look back at the year. First, one that readers will know is dear to me (see my obit for The “5” Royales’ lead singer, Johnny Tanner). On this 26-song compilation drawing on the group’s 51-song output while on King, compiler Tony Rounce has given us a fine mix of their most important tracks – “Say It,” “Think,” “The Slummer the Slum,” “Tell the Truth,” “Dedicated to the One I Love” – and much more obscure tunes, including some never before on CD. This is now the best place to hear why Steve Cropper, among others, venerates guitarist (and main songwriter) Lowman Pauling’s stinging playing, and how the band influenced Ray Charles, James Brown, and other soul greats.
Miles Davis – The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 (Columbia Legacy)
It just barely made it out this year – December 20! If you didn’t get it for Christmas or Hannukah, run and spend that crisp bill Granma gave you on this spiffy six-CD box. Most of it is previously unreleased, though parts were used for the Live/Evil double LP. A hot sextet anchored by R&B bassist Michael Henderson brings a funkier thrust to Miles’s far-out fusion, augmented on the last two CDs by sterling guitarist John McLaughlin.
John Coltrane – One Down, One Up: Live at the Half Note (Impulse!)
Radio broadcasts from two nights in 1965, just before Trane’s classic quartet split. These recordings have been much bootlegged but only now achieve official release (with good if not perfect sound); their reputation precedes them and is fully confirmed. “One Down, One Up” is an amazing feature on which the tenor saxophonist’s extremely lengthy solo never falters, and in fact reaches heights of imaginative improvisation rarely reached before or since, even by him.
Bob Dylan – No Direction Home: The Soundtrack (Columbia Legacy)
Doubling as Volume 7 of the Bootleg Series of Dylan rarities, this is a must-have for Zimmy fanatics and so chock-full of amazing material that even now it could win him new fans. The early stuff (going all the way back to 1959!) stands in its own right and provides wonderful context for his later achievements, while the alternate takes from Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde are well-chosen for fascinating differences and let us hear familiar material freshly.
Defunkt – Defunkt/Thermonuclear Sweat (Hannibal)
Purveying red-hot jazzy funk with punk attitude, Defunkt was one of the hottest bands in New York in the early 1980s, and that’s really saying something. This two-CD set packages their first two LPs (1980/1982) and a crucial 12-inch, plus some live bonus tracks (1983).
Gary Higgins – Red Hash (Drag City)
This extremely obscure 1973 psych-folk album by a New England hippie isn’t overtly psychedelic (really, only a few keyboard touches), because this is not a musician attempting to duplicate the feeling of a trip; rather, this is words and music made by a psychedelicized folkie: mostly mellow, mostly acoustic music that would be the perfect complement to a number of mind-altering substances. And the music doesn’t sound dated: Six Organs of Admittance covered one of these songs and it fit seamlessly into their album. Lovely.
Wes Montgomery/Wynton Kelly Trio – Smokin’ at the Half Note (Verve)
After Verve signed Montgomery, he was urged into less jazzy repertoire. No problems with this one, though: On a club date in 1965 he’s interacting with pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb. The result has been called the greatest jazz guitar album ever. The original LP used three studio recordings and two from the club; the studio stuff’s still here (no duplication of titles occurs), and an additional six live tracks are added. Most interesting, for a direction not further taken, is the version of Coltrane’s “Impressions.” Smokin’ indeed.
Sam Cooke – One Night Stand! Live at the Harlem Square Club (RCA Legacy)
Recorded at a crowded Miami nightclub on January 12, 1963, this is grittier than not only Cooke’s studio recordings but also his other concert albums before more genteel audiences. Cooke reaches back to his gospel roots and to the frenzied rock ‘n’ roll of Little Richard to unleash an exciting evening of vocal thrills and emotional highs, and his hot band drives him hard and inspires saxman King Curtis to some scorching solos as well – check out “Twistin’ the Night Away.”
Mark Stewart – Kiss the Future (Soul Jazz)
The only Soul Jazz compilation we’ve had at Sound Fix that didn’t sell well, which just proves that while you can be ineradicably English, or preach in-your-face leftist politics, or make British dance music, and still sell records in the U.S., if you combine all three, one of those characteristics will alienate the audience for the others. Don’t be alienated or you’ll miss some brilliantly distinctive noise-funk, or hip-hop reggae (depending on which phase Stewart was in at the time). This CD samples the Pop Group (from 1979, jagged and guitar-based, now difficult to track down), Mark Stewart & The Maffia (electronic, both catchy and abrasive), and Stewart’s collaborations with Adrian Sherwood, bringing the story up to the present with still-provocative and vital tracks.
Maximum Joy – Unlimited 1979-1983 (Crippled Dick Hot Wax)
An offshoot of the Pop Group and Glaxo Babies, Maximum Joy’s angular post-punk funk grooves, the charmingly yelped vocals of Janine Rainforth, and gritty sax riffs place it firmly in its time, but it still retains its urgency and still compels – and can still make you move your butt. Look for even more late-’70s Brit post-punk to reappear in 2006: Kill Rock Stars is releasing a Delta 5 compilation at the end of January!
